Where are You Going?

In life, there are many times when we hit stages that simply need defined. Without such definition, we tend to just sort of float along and react to things. I can reflect on my life and vividly remember times that I was simply reacting to the circumstances at hand.

I didn't like it.

When I started doing life on purpose - or rather, with purpose - I started to notice that I generally felt more fulfilled as a human. What I'm about to write here has little to do with becoming a better Christian (though this is ultimately where this blog leads to) and has more to do with directing one's life in a way that ultimately leads to some sort of stability and fulfillment. Mystic and Christian, Paul writes:

"I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want." (Phil. 4:12, NIV)

As our forerunner in the Christian tradition, we learn from Paul that contentment or a fulfilled life does not hang on whether we are fed or hungry (to use the analogy), but upon something else. Contentment in our lives has much more to do with being able to function with a sound mind about what we're doing. This being said, one of the things that I have found is a good question to ask myself on a regular basis is the title of this post: "Where are you going?"

I know that my reader may not be going anywhere physically but most people are "going" somewhere figuratively or in their spiritual or mental lives. For example, students are "going" somewhere psychologically and catechumen are "going" somewhere spiritually. These are two obvious examples. It is important, however, that we as Christians continue to "move" or grow in our knowledge and spirituality all to the end of growing the Kingdom of God.

So how do we go about answering the posed question? What has helped me in my journey is crafting a prayer. Yes, I said a prayer; not a mantra, nor a motto or a theme but a prayer. For me, I found that by praying, I acknowledge my great need for a savior and that my sustenance ultimately comes from God. Also unique to myself is that I have learned mine in Latin. I recite it this way for two reasons: 1. I took Latin in my undergrad and there fell in love with the language and 2. I feel a sense of connection to the historical church when I say it this way. So, I'm not saying you need to come up with a Latin prayer, but I am saying that you need to have a guide in your actions, decisions and ultimately your life in order to begin to answer the question of this post.

Crafting my Prayer

One of the first things that I asked myself when coming up with my prayer was to try and think of things that were most important to me. For me and after much reflection, these were truth, wisdom and love. These things, to me, are what makes up the foundations of how we encounter the world and, thus, how we act, make decisions and spend our energies. 

Truth

The first thing in my prayer is truth. This is the search and attainment of reality. Author Donald Miller once said that "reality is like a fine wine; it simply won't appeal to the immature". Admittedly, this is a paraphrase, but the idea stands: in order to be mature, we must embrace reality in all its starkness. This has led me to not turn away from hard news articles that report tragedy (though I think there is an over-saturation of these kinds of articles) and not mentally shrug off global issues.

Wisdom

I have found in my life that wisdom is usually the positive reciprocal of humility. That is, when I am more wise, I am also more humble and vice versa. Wisdom is essentially how we interpret the world that we encounter. If I am encountering this world with humility, I am more likely to see the world through a more realistic lens. It is those who are concerned with protecting their ego that usually view the world in a distorted way. My goal in including this wisdom piece is to avoid misinterpreting the world for the sake of my ego.

Love

Ultimately, love runs all. God is love and thus is, and should be, above all. Keeping in mind that the love I pray for is an acknowledgment of God's intrinsic character, it only makes sense in the context of truth and wisdom. As Christians, our love is an extension of God's and, through his empowerment, we are able to effectively spread this concern for all creatures of our world.

Concluding Thoughts

I will include my prayer at the bottom for the reader (both in Latin and English) but I want to say here that this prayer will likely not be the perfect prayer for you. Mine is from my subjective perspective and, for you, there may be more important things. Also, it should be said that we should be careful to let our prayers evolve. Clearly the Christian tradition affirms personal and novel prayer but the tradition of pre-written, pre-meditated prayer is deep and for good reason: they help to focus our lives.

I hope this has inspired some thought and meditation and I hope that from self-reflection you are able to come up with something to help guide your 2015 and life, ultimately answering the question "where are you going?"

Orationes Alexander Munionis

Pater Noster,

da nobis veritatem super consolatione

status sapientiae

et diligere super omnia.

in nomine Patris, et Fili, et Spiritus Sancti

The Prayer of Alexander Munoz

Our Father,

Give us truth over comfort,

wisdom over status

and love over everything.

In the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit

Again, I iterate that this may not be your prayer. This is simply how I have tried to guide myself through life's ups and downs. Feel free to share your own in the comments!

peace,

C.M.

Lord Lord

In our Christian subculture it is not at all uncommon to refer to God as "Lord" in prayer and in conversation. This practice comes straight from Scriptures and has consistently been a part of the Christian tradition since then. You're probably thinking "ok, Captain Obvious, thanks for the not-history lesson"...kidding, I know you're not that rude. My purpose in bringing this up is that I think that in our modern context, we tend to use this term without giving it the due respect it deserves and, sometimes, without thinking at all.

"...So, by their fruits you will get knowledge of them. Not everyone who says to me "Lord, Lord" will go into the kingdom of heaven; but he who does the pleasure of my Father in heaven..."

                                                                  Matt. 7:20 & 21

First off, when we read this passage, we need to remember that what Jesus isn't saying is that we have to read God's mind and do what he wants perfectly or we won't "get to heaven when we die" (think hymn in those quotations). He's not saying that only a small select group will get to be with God for eternity. No, what he's saying is that not all who go under the title "Christian", who call him "Lord" in their prayers and in reference to him, and those who do good things will be in his kingdom.

The word for "Lord" in this passage is transliterated as the Greek word kurios (koo'-ree-os) which (as I understand it, though I'm not a professional in Biblical Greek) means specifically "one who owns, has power over or is master of". Now you may be thinking "yeah, Jesus paid for my sins and so I guess he's the boss o' me" and when modern Christians think of this and when preachers preach on Jesus being our Lord, they usually hover around this legal meaning of "Lord" as in Lord and serf. To a first century Jew, however, this term kurios would have also included their God, the Creator of all. Thus, when Jesus is saying that "Lord" is not an indicator of who is in his kingdom, he's using a bigger paintbrush, if you will. He's using a word that connotes the one who is king of the universe, the Creator of all existence and the One who simply is.

The Danger of It

Why is this a big deal? Why does it matter if I say "Lord", isn't that just the same as saying God?

Well, in our subculture, people often use it as a synonym for Jesus, God, etc. but my purpose here, in part, is to specifically say NO; it isn't the same and this is a big deal.

 The great danger of using the term "Lord" without submitting to the Creator is that we tend to then simply project whatever we'd like to onto this faux-Lord so that our faith is a little easier. i.e. "I'd better buy a new coat this winter so that I can give my old one to the needy" or "I'm helping my coworker learn about right and wrong by not refilling the copy machine after I've emptied it. After all, they did it too and what goes around comes around". We make up pseudo-pious excuses with our faux-Lord instead of submitting to Jesus.

#AmIDoingThisRight

When we pray, sing a worship song, write to God or meditate, do we use the word "Lord"? If so, is Jesus - who is God - actually the kurios of your world? Does he own it, create it, pervade it and have dominion over it? Can people tell? What Jesus was saying right before he says the "Lord, Lord" bit was that you'll be able to tell who belongs to him because of the fruits of their lives. If someone is calling Jesus "Lord" but is not developing a life that reflects the communal love of the Triune Godhead, then there might be a problem. While it is not our place to judge anyone, it is our job to help our sisters and brothers in Christ become more like him who submitted perfectly to the will of Yahweh.

So, reflect: is this me? am I doing it right? If you don't feel like God is truly the kurios of your life, perhaps switch up your references to him to something you can more honestly say. Jesus taught us to call him Abba (daddy) after all. Crucify your faux-Lord because he cannot come back from the grave. Embrace the true kurios of existence as your Lord.

peace,

C.M.

 p.s. I didn't use a picture of Kanye West to judge him as one who misuses the term; I only want to point out that, as a culture, we don't think twice before using this term as fashion instead of its holy intended purpose. No judgement here.

A Short Discourse on Prayer

I recently had a conversation with a good friend of mine - lets call him Jeff - who has been dealing with some things. After an hour or so in which we framed the problem in a spiritual warfare model, I encouraged him to not only draw near to God in his personal life and via Scripture but to pray. I can't profess to know the inner workings of Jeff's spiritual life, but I know that he is a believer. One thing I cautioned against is exactly what I wanted to tell you about. What I said was this:

Prayer is not magic

"Well duh!" you might be thinking, "Prayer is talking to God and magic...well, isn't". The truth of the matter is, however unfortunate it is, many modern Christians that I've been exposed to treat prayer like it is merely a matter of saying the right incantation. We don't usually think of it this way, but magic is essentially trying to control the naturally uncontrollable by our own means or efforts. Prayer, by contrast, is the enacting of one side of a relationship. Just like we are given a measure of control over the things of this physical world (whether that be in our personal relationships or our buying power or our social media platforms, etc.) we are also given a measure of control over the things of the spiritual world, though these things are shrouded in mystery. When we pray we exercise this measure; this is why Jesus tells us to pray for our Father's will.

So what does this mean? A few things...

1. It means that we need not waste time and energy praying the same thing over and over as if God did not hear the first time. When we pray from our deepest person that God's will is done and made our preferences known, we then release the situation as we have done all that we can do.
2. It also means that we can be confident when a prayer of petition is not answered the way we want because God, who is our Father and the giver of good things to his children, wants what is best for us and thus will work things to that end within the confines of the contextual situation. We rarely know all of the factors that play into any one situation and though God does, he gifts all of humanity and angelic beings with truly free will (which necessitates that he does not intervene at his leisure). This is a picture of our incredible God who can allow for truly free creatures and still be in control of the larger picture regardless of our choices. We can trust this God and so when things don't work out the way we want, we can take comfort in the fact that it was the best that could happen with all of the factors in play.
3. It means that we ought to pray often. If we think of this in terms of voting power (though I think that this is an extremely limited analogy as prayer is intrinsically relational and voting is intrinsically legal), we ought to exercise our vote in God's favor all of the time. This is how we help the furthering of the Kingdom of God and help situations in which we feel powerless.

These are merely three of many many ways that framing prayer in this way is purposeful to our spiritual lives and I encourage all who read this to try to think of three more. Furthermore, scour Scripture for light in this matter; use the index in the back of your bible to look up passages on prayer, but don't look for a word-for-word "how to" (because it isn't there), instead look for a "how did" - that is, how did prayer function in this example? By this, we learn how to use our measure of control in the spiritual realm and thus serve God better.

peace,
C.M.


 

The Lost Art of Gratitude

If the only prayer you say in your whole life is "Thank you," that would suffice.

- Meister Eckhart

Meister Eckhart (1260-1329) was a German mystic who was of the Dominican order. In the above quote, he points out one of the single most important aspects to the Christian life: gratitude.

Why is gratitude important? I think that there are several reasons, but lets cover just a few in brevity; by doing so, my hope is that there is room for the reader to think about this topic and come up with some of your own reasons for being grateful.

Gratitude Takes Humility and Wisdom

If there is one thing that I think stands the test of time, it is that humility and wisdom are often directly proportional in a person's life. Gratitude often is a difficult thing because it means one of two things: either I needed the gift given or I can appreciate it, even if I didn't strictly need it. In the first case, it is obvious that it is often difficult to accept help when one needs it; I think we all can agree that our pride often gets in the way. In the second case, the wisdom that is necessary to realize when good things are given and that they did not have to be given takes time. By way of example, I remember my philosophy professor pointing out a rose and saying that it did not need the quality red or the scent that it carried in order to be a rose; if God wanted it gray and scentless, he could have made it so. In this way, Gratitude helps us to practice wisdom and humility in any given situation and those are Christ-like qualities.

Gratitude Pleases God

The only thing that is more of a let down than when someone doesn't say thank you is when someone thanks you for the gift you've given and then doesn't use it. It's like getting your friends a coffee maker for their wedding, receiving a hand-written "thank you" note saying how glad they are that you were at the wedding and then finding that coffee maker, still in the box, in the garage at their cook-out two years later. You feel let down; you feel like they didn't truly like the gift and that there was no joy derived from it. In your mind you had images of early morning brew gently rising them from slumber and ushering them into a beautiful day only to find out that they were likely still grabbing that Starbucks every morning on the way to work. Gifts are given so that joy and fullness can be experienced from them. The same is true for us and God; God gives gifts to all of creation. There are general gifts like nature and our bodies that are given to both believers and non-believers and there are spiritual gifts given to those who have become one with the Holy Spirit. In either case, we truly let God down when we take that gift and leave it in the box, on a shelf in our spiritual garage. Gratitude not only means saying thank you but using the gift because there is joy to be had in it and this pleases God.

Gratitude Brings People Together

When I was managing a restaurant, one of the most important things that I did for my employees was say "thank you." Most of them had never worked for someone who valued their creativity and efforts as much as their actual output. For example, we were tweaking a recipe and I asked one of my cooks to have some liberty with the recipe so that I could see what came of it. The first couple tries were a flop, but each time I encouraged him to try again and sincerely thanked him for his efforts. By the third or fourth time, he nailed it, confident in himself. He told me later that no one had ever thanked him for his work and made him feel valued that much. Gratitude inherently brings people into better relationships. When we thank people for their contributions and stop viewing people in utilitarian terms of what we can get from them, it is much easier to see them as people -- just like you. Ironically, no one likes being used, but most everyone struggles to intentionally make people feel valued. Gratitude is key in this effort. 

This is Not the End

There is so much more to be said about gratitude and when you stop and think about it, thankfulness impacts so many areas of our lives; it touches our self-image, our relationships, our jobs, our families and more. Practice gratitude in sincerity and action, not just in hollow words and if you have to fake it until you make it, it's better to say it and learn to feel it later; remember that the wisdom to recognized deserved thanks only comes with maturity and we're not all there. Also remember that our prayers should be primarily articulations of our thankfulness and then secondarily requests. So think about how you can be more grateful today

and then do it.

peace,

C.M.